ALIEN METAL IN MAR­TIAN SKY

Metal ions from me­te­oric dust have been found high in Mars’s at­mos­phere. The dust va­por­ises, leav­ing iron, mag­ne­sium and sodium ions in the up­per at­mos­phere, which have been de­tected by NASA’s Mars At­mos­phere and Volatile Evo­lu­tion Mis­sion (MAVEN). Sim­i­lar ions are found around Earth, but are kept in check by our planet’s mag­netic field. Find­ing the ions at Mars al­lows re­searchers to study the in­ter­ac­tion be­tween the patchy Mar­tian mag­netic field and the at­mos­phere.